Perek 2, part 3

אז ידבר אלימו באפו ובחרונו יבהלמו. When the various nations banded together to attempt to reject David Hamelch's kingship, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu responds as follows: אז ידבר אלימו באפו ובחרונו יבהלמו. Malbim says אז בעת שידבר אלימו, when he speaks to them pis'om, suddenly, b'apo, in his anger, yivahaleimo v'charono. How does the Malbim know that the element of suddenness that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is speaking to them pis'om, they're conspiring, they're feeling very confident and secure in all their machinations, and then suddenly, like a thunderbolt, the mashma'us is in the yivahaleimo on the end of the pasuk. As we find by the achi Yosef: ולא יכלו אחיו לענות אתו כי נבהלו מפניו. The v'shom, the nivhalu suggests a reaction of the shock due to the suddenness. So that's what Malbim says: אז בעת שידבר אלימו פתאום באפו, so yivahaleimo v'charono. In the Be'ur Hamilos, the Malbim explains that af alone only suggests, connotes anger. And when you have charon af, it means where, as Chazal say, that wherever you have charon af it leaves a roishem. It means that it's anger which is being vented, which is being, the punishment is being imposed. What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu say? ואני נסכתי מלכי על ציון הר קדשי. The word nasachti, the Malbim explains, is loshon hagdala, to elevate. Say in L'cha Dodi:

לקראת שבת לכו ונלכה כי היא מקור הברכה מראש מקדם נסוכה.

Right, from the get-go Hakadosh Baruch Hu's design for the b'riya is that Shabbos is the culmination of the b'riya. The Malbim here comments, as we know in Loshon Hakodesh, in the past tense, so we can really the subject is indicated just by the ending of the verb. So va'ani is unnecessary to indicate who the subject is, you know from the nasachti that it's ani. So the Malbim says it's to indicate a diyuk and usually means to suggest that you're doing this while you're doing this, to emphasize the contrast, the antithesis, I'm doing this. It's that the sense of where the pasuk will provide the va'ani. And that's what gives rise to the Malbim's ואני נסכתי מלכי אתם רוצים למרוד. You're, there's this big commotion and you're organizing yourselves to rebel, but you should know va'ani b'esa hi, again, that's the davar v'hipucho, right?

שחשבתם לפרוק עול מלכות בית דוד, בעת היא נסכתי מלכי שעל ידי מרידתכם נתגלה שהוא הנמשך מאתי למשול על ציון הר קדשי.

When Hakadosh Baruch Hu makes a gzeira, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu determines what will be at a certain time, so nothing a person does can interfere with that. Not only can it not interfere with the result, but it doesn't even interfere, as it were, with the way it plays out. I once heard someone expound on this idea in the context of Pharaoh.

ואולם בעבור זאת העמדתיך בעבור הראותך את כחי ולמען ספר שמי בכל הארץ.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu had decreed that Pharaoh was going to be an instrument for Kvod Shamayim, למען ספר שמי בכל הארץ. Pharaoh could have, as it were, cooperated with the ratzon Hashem, with the gzeiras Shamayim, by becoming the world's most famous baal teshuvah. Imagine the number one wanted on a wanted list in every post office, the biggest rasha of the superpower, so imagine the waves it would have created if he would have been chozer b'teshuvah. What would the result have been if Pharaoh had been chozer b'teshuvah? It would have been למען ספר שמי בכל הארץ. But Pharaoh resists:

מי ה' אשר אשמע בקולו, לא ידעתי את ה' וגם את ישראל לא אשלח.

So what was the result? Pharaoh was the instrument for למען ספר שמי בכל הארץ. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu decides this is what's going to be and it's going to be now, so nothing, nothing, without taking away our bechirah, nothing can impinge even kekutzoh shel yud on that gzeira materializing. And that's exactly here. שעל ידי מרידתכם נתגלה שהוא הנמשך מאתי למשול. That same giluy that David Hamelech was the Moshiach harishon, that could have been nisgaleh by all malchei Canaan recognizing David Hamelech and being kafuf to him. It would have been the same giluy שהוא הנמשך מאתי למשול. But they know, but they rebel against Hakadosh Baruch Hu. נוסדו יחד על ה' ועל משיחו. And what do they accomplish? What do they achieve? שעל ידי מרידתכם נתגלה שהוא הנמשך מאתי למשול. Ribbono shel Olam, on the one hand we have the bechirah is so vast, and on the other hand Hakadosh Baruch Hu's plans can't be derailed. If He says something's going to happen and this is how it's going to happen and this is when it's going to happen, it happens. למען ספר שמי בכל הארץ happens al yedei Pharaoh, which in no way minimizes the significance of Pharaoh's bechirah until whatever point he still had bechirah. Just the way it... So the Malbim emphasizes the pissom. But this is a very, very beautiful, very, very important comment of the Sforno in Parshas Mikeitz on the pasuk

וישלח פרעה ויקרא את יוסף ויריצהו מן הבור. ויגלח ויחלף שמלתיו ויבא אל פרעה.

So the pasuk describes how when the avdei Paroh come to bring Yosef, so Vayaritzuhu min habor, that they're rushing him. Says the Sforno, כדרך כל תשועת השם שנעשית כמו רגע. Tshu'as Hashem happens instantaneously. Things turn on what's the phrase in English, turn on a dime. Things in a moment, Hakadosh Baruch Hu turns the world upside down.

כדרך כל תשועת השם שנעשית כמו רגע. כאמרו כי קרובה ישועתי לבא. וכאמרו לו עמי שומע לי כמעט,

right, k'mat. In a moment, in the smallest moment of time, k'mat oyveihem achina. V'chein, says the Sforno, hoya inyan Mitzrayim, כאמרו כי גרשו ממצרים. ke'omram zal

שלא הספיק בצקם של אבותינו להחמיץ. וכן אמר לעשות לעתיד,

and l'osid lavo, כאמרו ופתאום יבא אל היכלו האדון. The element of suddenness. That's why we're supposed to make haf on the zman because ופתאום יבא אל היכלו האדון lav davka that there's two months advance notice. Asapra el chok. So now the pasuk vav was speaking in the voice of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, pasuk zayin speaking in the voice of Dovid Hamelech. Asapra el chok. השם אמר אלי בני אתה אני היום ילדתיך. The Malbim explains, the same way every country, every nation has its laws, there are certain international laws. There are international laws about how you treat prisoners of war. There are international laws about what justifies a country attacking another country. Not to say that people necessarily follow the international laws, but there are international laws. So Dovid Hamelech says, asapra el chok. I'm going to tell you the law that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has established for how I'm supposed to behave. השם אמר אלי בני אתה. Just as a father who has tremendous holdings, so he'll appoint his son to oversee those holdings, להיות מושל בכל אשר לו. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu said בני אתה אני היום ילדתיך. Just as בן המושל בנכסי אביו, so too Hakadosh Baruch Hu said that I'm supposed to be מושל על ארץ ישראל. Sh'al mimeni, again this is Dovid Hamelech quoting what Hakadosh Baruch Hu has told him. שאל ממני ואתנה גוים נחלתך ואחזתך אפסי ארץ. The Malbim, Pasuk Ches, Sha'al Mimeni, כי מצדי לא יבצר. Then HaKadosh Baruch Hu says there's not going to be any impediment from my end. The only thing that's necessary is rak tishal u-tevakesh. That's a midah that we sometimes encounter when we try to understand how it is. It's obviously a major tenet of our belief that tefillah is efficacious.

אמר רבי יצחק יפה צעקה לאדם בין קודם גזר דין בין לאחר גזר דין.

Even l'achar gezar din, tza'akah is potentially efficacious, ועל אחת כמה וכמה קודם גזר דין. So how does tefillah have an effect? How does tefillah make a difference? When we sort of petition people, so we're looking to change their mind. Maybe we're tugging at their heartstrings to try to get the emotion to overcome reason, to get rachamim to overcome din. HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't change his mind. There are no heartstrings to tug at. So what's happening when we daven? So there are, the first answer is a group of answers. The first answer is that in tefillah, so it's not that HaKadosh Baruch Hu changes his mind, but we change. When a person davens to the Ribono Shel Olam, a person who is machnia himself before the Ribono Shel Olam, a person recognizes, experiences his dependence upon HaKadosh Baruch Hu. A person in the course of tefillah comes be-lev nishbar ve-nidkeh, so the person changes. And that's how tefillah is efficacious. Not that HaKadosh Baruch Hu changes his mind, but the metzius to which HaKadosh Baruch Hu is relating changes. We change it. That's one sort of answer, one group of answers. The other answer is that it's a midah with which HaKadosh Baruch Hu runs the world, governs the world, that sometimes he's already as it were prepared the bracha, but it requires tefillah in order for us to receive it. It's as though it's in the pipeline, but you have to, you have to open in order to receive it. You have to lift the dam and to let the water flow. That's also a midah. It's a midah with which HaKadosh Baruch Hu runs the world, and it's also a perspective on the efficacy of tefillah. That's what's being described here: שאל ממני כי מצדי לא יבצר. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says I'm ready to do it, right? Kaveiyachol I want to do it. However, רק אם תשאל ותבקש, so right away שאל ממני ואתנה גוים נחלתך ואחזתך אפסי ארץ. And not only will you conquer them, but you'll be able to assert your control, right? Achuzah, you'll have it in hand, afsei aretz, throughout no matter how, how distant.

לא לבד הגוים הקרובים כי גם תאחז ותכבוש עד אפסי ארץ. תרועם בשבט ברזל ככלי יוצר תנפצם.

So both teroyam... as well as tenapetzem means to break, and the Metzudas Tzion says tero'em tishbarem. And that's why a truah is a broken kol. Onkelos teitsh's it as as the Baraisa in Rosh Hashanah quotes yevava, truah is a broken kol, and that's the safek that Rabbi Abbahu addresses, is it a broken kol of ginucha ganach or is it a broken kol of yelula yalil? But either way truah is lashon shvira, is a broken kol. The Malbim suggests again kedarko, distinguishing between apparent synonyms, that truah means something that's broken in the sense that it becomes cracked, but it's still held together. ma she'ein kein, tenapetzem, niputz means totally shattered into into separate pieces. And and the pasuk is describing in in escalating terms how Dovid Hamelech will vanquish all those who who stand against him. You know, it's it's interesting, I don't know whether, but the the Malbim's teitsh that ro'ah, again, take a look in the Divrei Hayamim, that hu she'nivka hadavar, גם בהיותו מחובר עדיין, but it's still connected. You know, there are different minhagim in how you blow a truah. I think the Teimani truah is actually connected, right, it's it's broken into little pieces but connected, not the way Ashkenazim blow blow a truah. So according to according to the Malbim, that that fits semantically. Obviously one is not going to change one's minhag to the other based on this, but according to the Malbim, that that fits semantically better in the lashon truah. תרועם בשבט ברזל ככלי יוצר תנפצם. ve'atah, says Dovid Hamelech, given that this is what Akadosh Baruch Hu has said will happen, מלכים השכילו הוסרו שופטי ארץ. The same idea we spoke of before, a person cannot stand in the way of gezeira shamayim. A person can choose how that gezeira shamayim would be mekuyam. Paroh could choose, Paroh had the right to choose how he would be a vehicle for למען ספר שמי בכל הארץ. And so too you do. So ועתה מלכים השכילו הוסרו שופטי ארץ. Again, no no repetition, haskilu means seichel, do it me'ahava. Or hivasru, or be chastised, do it meyirah. Don't try to foil, don't try to resist Akadosh Baruch Hu's design that that I'm supposed to be the mashiach Hashem and and rule over Eretz Yisrael. If you'll do so, so then עבדו את ה׳ ביראה and that will allow you ultimately, the way the Malbim teitsh's, vegilu bir'ada, that you'll be able to rejoice in the end how your trembling, how your yiras ha'onesh saved you. What should you do if if you choose this path, what should you do? So we actually anticipated the Malbim here in the last pasuk. nashku bar, again neshika commonly commonly meaning kiss, means chibur. Let's say in hilchos mikva'os you have a hashaka. hashaka means when you have when you join two bodies of water. When you open, if you have one body of water here and another here and if there's a wall in between and you'll make a hole in the wall, so then that's hashaka, you're you're joining those two bodies of water. So nashku bar, hischabru, bar lashon choice, mevurah. nashku bar, התחברו אל המבורר מאת ה׳. And this is the idea we had earlier as well, that

שבמשך תעבדו עבודת המלך משיח ה׳ ידמה כאילו אתם עובדים את ה׳.

The yesod which underlies Chazal's understanding of hidovku bo, to try to be lehis'chaber al hachachomim and to be mihaney me'hem. The alternative is נשקו בר פן יאנף ותאבדו דרך. The alternative is lest Hakadosh Baruch Hu anger flare against you and vesovdu derech, as was depicted in the end of kapittel aleph, vederech reshaim toveid. Remember, that was the, sort of, the flow between kapittel aleph and kapittel bais, that given that ultimately derech reshaim toveid, so why is it למה רגשו גוים ולאמים יהגו ריק? That was the connection. So

נשקו בר פן יאנף ותאבדו דרך כי יבער כמעט אפו.

Again, כי רגע רגע באפו, just meat apo, just meat apo, the smallest moment you'll be consumed. אשרי כל חוסי בו. We'll stop there.